Vulnerable
by BespectacledSloth
Summary: AU in which Tadashi shows up late to help Hiro. (Alternate AU of "Going Under" requested by anonymous guest!) T for violence! Whoop whoop!


Hiro felt a chill up his spine as he backed away from Yama's goons. He was as good as dead if he didn't find an escape soon. He looked left, then right, then tried to make a break for it, only to jump back in fear when one of the men shot his arm out in front of him and cut off his retreat. He gulped and brought his hands up in front of his face as the first man lifted his arm, fist clenched, and pulled it back.

"C-Come on guys!"

Hiro felt his head connect with the wall behind him before he even realized he'd been punched. He slumped against the brick and groaned, feeling the pain in his midsection, and crumpled into himself briefly until he felt the second hit by someone to his right. It felt like something cracked, but maybe that was just the fist rebounding off of his ribs. He felt fists connecting with his face, his ribs, even his stomach was getting hit and he was vaguely aware of the contents of his stomach being emptied onto the ground as one of the guys gave him a kick hard enough to send him sprawling on the pavement.

He looked up at the guys and tried to plead again, but his head was swimming from the hit he'd taken earlier and he couldn't seem to say words, much less think of anything that would stop their onslaught.

The beating only lasted a short time before the guys backed away in surprise as the entire alley filled with light. Hiro vaguely heard the sound of a motor outside of the ringing of his ears as he rolled on the ground to try and sit up.

"Hiro, stay down," he heard a distorted voice say and obeyed it, more than happy to remain on the cold ground as it soothed his forming bruises and lumps. He heard the sounds of fighting moments later. Was he getting beaten again? Maybe. He was kind of out of it by that point.

He heard the sound of footsteps, scuffling, and shouting.

Turning his head to the side for a better look, he noticed the baseball cap lying on the ground and rolled onto his side, reaching out for it and bringing it closer to his face. Behind the pain, something in his mind screamed at him to sit up. And he did.

He sat up, hat in hand, and watched as Tadashi stood in front of him, fists raised, and fought three fully grown men simultaneously. He had taken a few punches, Hiro could tell from the way he was favoring one side for his main punches, and he had a split lip. Hiro slowly got to his feet and tried to shake of the pain-induced fog in his brain. There was no way Tadashi could do this alone.

He took a step forward, dropping the hat back onto the ground and gaining his thoughts, then his courage, and finally speed as he ran forward and tackled the smallest of the three men to the ground.

Tadashi and the remaining two men paused in surprise.

"Hiro!" Tadashi shouted, regaining himself and thinking to land a punch on the man closest to him before he continued, "I told you to stay down!" He kicked one of the guys to the ground and focused his efforts on the biggest one.

Hiro was a little preoccupied beating the snot out of the guy under him, so he simply shouted, "Shut up!" He landed several solid punches before the guy was able to toss him off to the side and come at him again, but this time Hiro had the advantage as he jumped up and landed two solid kicks to his chest, knocking him backwards. "See, now that it's a fair fight you're nothing!" He shouted and swung around, sweeping his leg under him and knocking him to the ground.

The guy got up, panicked, and looked at Yama who had been standing by the entire time watching. He half-bowed, then made a break for it down a side alley and out of sight.

The guy that Tadashi had knocked down moments before stood up and moved to swing at Tadashi again, missing as Tadashi ducked under his fist and shoved him away. Hiro took this as his queue and jumped in between them, Tadashi and himself back-to-back as they fought off the men.

Hiro silently thanked Tadashi as they fought. If he hadn't insisted he learned karate back in high school, he probably would be in deep trouble with this guy, who had apparently had some study as well, and wouldn't be holding his own. Although, holding his own and winning were two different things and honestly he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep up without taking a severe hit. His ribs were aching something awful and no amount of adrenaline pumping through his veins was going to be able to counteract that.

The two continued to fend off the men until they heard the sound of sirens in the distance. They took the momentary distraction that it caused to knock their attackers back and back away towards Tadashi's scooter.

"Get on," Tadashi said urgently, putting himself between both men and Hiro as they neared the scooter. "Hiro, get on now."

Hiro backed away more swiftly at his command and quickly got on the scooter, sitting in the front of the seat and kicking the scooter on as quickly as he could. He could tell this surprised Tadashi, but he didn't care as he pulled it forward off the kickstand and revved the engine.

That's when Tadashi did the most surprising thing Hiro had ever seen from him. He took a punch to the face, then ducked down, angled back and kicked the closet man straight in the face, knocking him into the man behind him. He jumped up from the pose quickly and hopped on the back of the scooter, "Go!" He said, and Hiro twisted the throttle, zipping away from the scene as quickly as he could.

At some point, Tadashi had reached around him and taken control, probably because Hiro was nearly running into things with his poor steering, but probably because Hiro wasn't feeling so great and was leaning back against his chest for support.

They got home, and thankfully Aunt Cass was well distracted with Beat Poetry Night at the cafe, so they were able to sneak upstairs without her seeing their injuries.

Tadashi broke for the bathroom to grab the first aid kid as Hiro dragged himself to their room, feeling winded just from struggling up the stairs, and lay down gently on his bed, one hand pressed firmly to his sore ribs, the other to the back of his aching head.

"What did you think you were doing, knucklehead?" He heard Tadashi say as he came into the room, slamming the door behind him and locking it so Aunt Cass wouldn't come in and see them. "Going bot fighting? Hustling people out of their money? Hustling _Yama_ out of his money? Are you stupid?"

"I'm really not in the mood for this."

"And I am?"

Hiro cracked his eyes open and finally saw his brother's face for the first time that night. He had a cut over one eye and a split lip, as well as a large bruise that swallowed his entire left eye and part of his cheek. That was going to look pretty nasty in a little while.

"Sorry," he said, sitting up. "I didn't realize you had..." he darted his eyes to the ground. He felt the bed sink down next to him as Tadashi joined him, laying the first aid kit out, and looked up when Tadashi put his hand on his chin, lifting his face.

Tadashi didn't say anything as he took out an alcohol-soaked cotton ball and began gently dabbing at Hiro's equally bad facial wounds. He had a cut that ran the length of half of his forehead, as well as scrapes on his chin and with sheer luck his nose wasn't broken, but was badly bruised as well as his cheek. He had a split in his lip that nearly matched Tadashi's.

"That stings," he complained, wincing away from his hand.

"Yeah, it's going to. Now stop complaining." He put some butterfly stitches on the head wound, then a bandage on his chin. He pulled an instant cold pack out of the kit and cracked it, pressing it over Hiro's nose. "Where else hurts?" He said softly, his eyes shimmering with concern.

Hiro frowned and looked away from his face, then lifted his shirt gingerly, showing his bruised ribs and stomach.

Tadashi didn't say anything, he didn't even move for awhile, just staring at the injuries for a long time, then he slowly leaned forward and hugged Hiro tightly. "You stupid, stupid, stupid idiot," he said softly.

Hiro clenched his fists and closed his eyes, sniffling softly, then pulling away from the hug and putting a stupid smile on his face, "What about you? Charging into battle? What do you think you are, a superhero?"

Tadashi laughed softly and moved away, then frowned at him, "What makes you think you're so invincible that you can do things like this? What would have happened to you if I hadn't reached you in time? Did you ever think about that?"

There was a long silence in which Hiro just stared at the floor and slowly unclenched his fists. His hands were shaking. "It was harmless fun."

"Harmless?" Tadashi gently poked him in the ribs causing him to cringe and slap his hand away, "This isn't harmless. Why aren't you using that big brain of yours for something good? Do you like getting beaten up?" he raised a hand to his face and gently ran his thumb over the bruise on his cheek.

Hiro brushed his hand away, "Of course not." He said, getting up and gingerly moving to his computer. He tapped idly on the keys, then turned back and moved back to the bed. He silently got a new cotton ball and dabbed the cuts on Tadashi's face. He bandaged him up, then stood up again, wincing in pain.

"Come here," Tadashi sighed, "Bonehead." He lifted Hiro's shirt when he came close and gently pressed on his side where the bruise was most serious, "It's not broken, that's lucky. But it is bruised pretty badly. Come on," he said as he got up and grabbed a helmet, "Let's go for a drive."

Hiro frowned, following him, "Where are we going?"

"Just somewhere."

"Where?"

"A botfight across town. I saw it on that page you always have open. I can drive you, and this time I'll be there before you get into trouble."

Hiro shrugged, "Cool," he said and smiled a little as the duo went downstairs.

* * *

><p>Weaksauce ending but I couldn't figure out how else to tie this into the movie.<p>

Requested by an anonymous reviewer after they read "Going Under."

Whoop whoop!


End file.
